John Bolton, who is rumored to be President-elect Donald Trump’s pick for deputy secretary of state, made waves Sunday when he questioned the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russian hacking had influenced the presidential election.

“It is not at all clear to me, just viewing this from the outside, that this hacking into the DNC and the RNC computers was not a false flag operation,” Bolton said in an interview on Fox News.

Cardenas grocery store, in a predominantly Latino area of Las Vegas, was the site of heavy early voting on Friday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

A Nevada judge on Tuesday denied a request from the Donald Trump campaign to set aside ballots it contested, concluding the first of what could be a raft of legal challenges concerning problems at the polls.

With conservative and liberal groups launching extensive efforts to monitor the election, there were scattered reports and complaints about voter irregularities throughout the day Tuesday, though none appeared to support Trump's claim that the election was "rigged."

“If I write a good joke in July that puts words in Donald Trump's mouth and then draw it up in a cartoon, everybody loves it. It's fantastic. They think it's absolutely great. Donald Trump tells the exact same joke in October and people get on his case, and I don't get it! I don't know why. It wasn't his fault those words came out of his mouth.”

Get an insider’s take on the cliffhanger battles in the six states that will determine control of the Senate with Roll Call’s Nathan Gonzales and representatives from two of the largest Republican and Democratic Super PACs. Ian Prior from Senate Leadership Fund and Shripal Shah from Senate Majority PAC take us behind-the-scenes in the Super PAC world and discuss their ad strategy.

Jonathan Allen, Roll Call columnist and co-author of the New York Times best-seller HRC:State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, sets up Monday night's first presidential debate, discussing what Hillary Clinton needs to do to keep Donald Trump off balance, and what Trump must do to appear presidential.

With his poll numbers back up, President Barack Obama could be an asset to Senate Democratic candidates on the campaign trail this year. (Douglas Graham/CQ Roll Call file photo)

PHILADELPHIA — Senate Democrats have a message for President Barack Obama: We want to see you on the campaign trail this year.

The party's leading strategists say that unlike in 2014, when Obama avoided campaigning with vulnerable incumbents in his own party, the president can be an asset in the coming three months before Election Day.

Blame it on Hillary Clinton’s unpopularity. Or maybe Donald Trump’s? Whatever the reason, Republican officeholders seem much happier waging war against their Democratic opponent at the Republican National Convention than propping up their own nominee.

Current state and federal elected officials have mentioned Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton 135 times during podium speeches on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while they’ve only invoked their own candidate’s name 77 times.